The problem is on the right hand end, where the regular hammering of the
castle has pounded a deep groove into the shaft. This is a 3/16" by 1.437" long
shaft. It takes 3/16 e clips on each end. The grooves for the clips are 1.25
inches apart.

We remade the shaft with a piece of 1/4 inch drill rod, turned at the ends to
accept the 3/16 clips. We drilled the bearing holes and plastic mounting blocks
out to accept the new shaft. The alternative was new pivot shafts (expensive)
and bushings and a prayer for the castle mounts. This had to be done for both
left hand castle towers.

June 8, 2005

All my 1/4" oversize pins are gone. But I made a batch of 3/16" pins that
should replace the originals.

The pounded original pin is on the right. The shinier ones are drill rod; the
rest are stainless. The milky look is a combination of the flash and the finish
on the stainless stock. I have enough pins to fix four machines here (2 per
machine).

June 5, 2005

I have made some replacement castle pins. These are made from stainless
steel, and are oversized with a 1/4" shaft diameter. Here they are, with the
original 3/16" shaft at the bottom.

My metalworking isn't so good, but I did manage to create 8 of them - enough
for about 4 machines. They are mostly a bit longer than the stock pins, but one
is .03" shorter. Should not be a problem, but you never know. They require 1/4"
'e' clips on each end, as opposed to the 3/16" original to the machine. As they
are stainless steel, they should not pound out of shape quite so easily.

To use them, you will need to enlarge the holes in the existing metal bracket
to 1/4", and drill out the plastic tower bases. This is going to be hard without
a drill press, as you will be drilling into a hole that is no longer round. You
may end up lining the plastic with some thin wall tubing, or replacing missing
plastic with some epoxy. For example, you could fill the existing plastic to
make it round first, then drill through that.

"A bench drill is an absolute must I would have to say, and
you can how oval I still managed to make one of the holes. (More like a figure
of eight, in fact). I fixed that with some epoxy putty built up on the inside
though, and filed to shape. I decided to buy some e-clips as I didnít fancy
having to get those push nuts off the shaft. When I had finished, I had a gap
between two of the towers, where one supports the other. A bit of metal plate
cut to size and whacked with a hammer until it was the right thickness cured
this, superglued into place. The towers all sit very nicely now."